Kelly Olson in the Bricklight
Your name, sir?
Kelly Olson.
And what is it that you do here, at Red Bricks Media?
I am the COO and CFO at Red Bricks. The CFO side is pretty self-explanatory. I deal with all the company finances and make sure we have money in the bank. On the COO side, I work with all of our service lines and functional managers in a supporting role as well as working closely with The West Coast Client Services group to help manage client relationships as best as possible.
It’s not common that you run into someone with the dual roles of CFO and COO. Some might call you a Superman as you seem to be tasked with a Herculean degree of responsibility. Do you see yourself as Super?
Well, if I had to choose a superpower, it would be the ability to not have to sleep, because you could always be spending more time on the business to improve things. But no, I don’t view myself as a Superman and I couldn’t do what I do without having a solid management team in place, which I’m glad to say we do.
If you weren’t doing this job, at this company, at this time in history, what different career path could you see yourself in?
The things that would most interest me would be teaching and coaching, which I think would be pretty attainable. [At this point in the interview, Kelly launches in to his world famous football metaphors. I never know what he is talking about when he does this, so I have stricken it from the record.] And the other path that has always interested me has been film directing.
Interesting indeed. I was not aware you had a bit of the old creative yearning. Nice one. Desert island, three films, go!
‘The 3rd Man’. I’m a big Orson Welles fan. ‘Rear Window’ or pretty much any Hitchcock film for that matter. And ‘Fargo’, a Coen Brothers masterpiece.
Wow. Who knew? Okay one last work-related question: How would you describe the aesthetic style of your office?
Pretty poor.
I completely agree. I might even go so far as to call it awful. Moving on, can you describe an ideal Saturday for Kelly Olson?
Hit a local college football game. Do some tailgating before hand. Head home for a nap afterwards. Meet up with friends for a good meal in the evening and then if I’m up for it, maybe hit a club or two and do a little dancing.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you describe yourself as a dancer?
A 5 or a 6.
How modest of you. Will we be seeing you and your stylistic moves at this year’s holiday party?
There is a definite possibility of that happening. However, I can tell you with complete certainty that you won’t be witnessing any pole dancing.
Will you save a dance for me?
Only if it’s a slow one.
As told to Russell Bongard, RBM Creative Director - 2009
